Remix OS to enter beta on March 1st with new features

Jide’s Remix OS, which is based on Android with some much needed multi-tasking features thrown in, landed for desktop PC’s back in January in what was very much an alpha state, complete with the bugs and issues that you would typically associate with an earlier release. At MWC 2016, Jide has now announced that Remix OS will be entering its beta phase on March 1^st and will pack in a selection of new features.

The beta will update the OS with three main new features – 32-bit PC support, dual-booting, and over-the-air updates. The first is pretty useful for those who want to try out Remix OS on an older machine, as the alpha build currently only supports PCs with a 64-bit processor. This was a bit of a shame for some users, as Remix OS’ other hardware requirements are very low, so it’s ideal for a breathing new life into an ageing machine.

Dual-booting is also a feature that many users have been after. Some have even gone so far as to implement their own dual-booting methods in order to run Remix OS alongside their regular operating system and to avoid running the OS from a slower flash drive. Jide will officially support dual-booting once the beta lands and will be providing a dedicated tool to help install the OS as a secondary boot option.

Finally, over-the-air support is going to be a real boon for those who are using the OS a lot. Although OTA updates are already supported on Jide’s hardware platforms, those using the OS on their own PCs have had to fresh install the OS with each update. This is hugely inconvenient as user data is lost each time. Official OTA updates will go a long way to make the OS a viable platform for longer term use.

Unfortunately, Jide still won’t be offering Google Play Services out of the box for the PC version of Remix OS. Presumably this has a lot to do with meeting Google’s hardware requirements, which is going to be tough to do when the OS can be installed on any number of hardware configurations. Jide is apparently in talks with Google about bringing the Play Store and other services to the OS, but until then users will be left to side load their own versions.

The beta version will be available to download from March 1^st 2016.

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Jide Technology Announces Remix OS for PC Beta Release at MWC 2016

Beta version to be made available on March 1st with OTA support

Jide Technology today announces the availability of Remix OS for PC Beta – the productivity-oriented version of Android, following the hugely popular Alpha release in January. The new Beta version has a substantial number of bug fixes and an increase in device compatibility, as well as over-the-air (OTA) updates, 32-bit system support and dual boot support through a new hard drive installer tool. The new release will be publically available to download from the Jide website on March 1st.

Remix OS for PC allows users to freely download and install Remix OS, the best experience of both mobile and PC, onto the majority of Intel/AMD-powered machines. For the first time in Android, Remix OS brings PC productivity features such as multiple floating windows, advanced file manager, and true mouse and keyboard support to the Android app ecosystem. Remix OS allows users to run your Android apps and games such as Clash of Clans, Microsoft Word, and Facebook with the added power of your MacBook or old Windows machine.

David Ko, Co-Founder of Jide Technology, explains: “Thanks to the support and feedback from our generous community, we’ve been able to speed up the development of the Beta version. Now with OTA software update support, users can begin to rely on Remix OS for more daily activities without the worry of a new update wiping their data. This update will help us to charge towards the eventual stable release later in 2016.”

Following a clear demand, Jide has been working on providing compatibility for older, 32-bit computer systems, and is happy to announce it has been implemented with the release of Remix OS for PC Beta. A vast number of computers that still run 32-bit processors can now be given a new life with a lightweight Android-powered OS. This capability has exciting prospects particularly in developing markets where consumers are unlikely to regularly upgrade their hardware; Remix OS provides users a modern and versatile PC desktop experience to as many people as possible.

As Jide has championed a brand new way of experiencing Android, Google Play Services and the Play Store will not currently be pre-installed on Remix OS. This is while Google takes the time they need to test the new operating environment. Users of the Beta version will be able to sideload Google Play Services by following instructions found on the Jide website.

Summary of change log from Alpha to Beta:

• Over 50 major bugs fixed
• UEFI support added
• 32-bit support added alongside 64-bit
• Hard drive installer for dual boot now available
• OTA update support

Natural Collaboration

Remix OS for PC has been made possible thanks to a deep collaboration with the Android-x86 project. The community-favorite project has worked hard for years to bring the Android experience to traditional Intel-based computers. Combining their work with Jide’s Remix OS has opened up a whole new world to Android fans and users. This partnership is long-term and both parties will work together to improve the Android on PC experience in the years to come.

Editor‘s notes

High-resolution screenshots, logos and headshots can be found here

For more information visit http://www.jide.com/

About Jide Technology:

Founded in 2014, Jide Technology was started by three ex-Google engineers whose mission is to build products that give people a seamless and affordable mobile productivity experience in the mobile era of computing. Their successful launch of the Remix Ultratablet gave them invaluable experience in the hardware space, allowing the company to easily move laterally into the desktop PC space, which led to the launch of the Remix Mini, the world’s first Android PC. Jide’s global headquarters is in Beijing, China. For more information, please check out http://www.jide.com.

About the Android-x86 project:

Founded in 2009, the Android-x86 project began as a site hosting a series of patches of the Android source code. It has since transformed, with the aim of giving users the ability to port Google’s Android mobile operating system to run on all devices that use AMD and Intel x86 processors, including netbooks and desktops. In order to do this, the project created a code base to provide support on different x86 platforms, and now provides a server for people to download it, becoming a community project with over 5 million downloads. For more information, go to http://www.android-x86.org/

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